Special issue of Atmospheric Environment for Particulate Matter: Atmospheric Sciences, Exposure, and the Fourth Colloquium on PM and Human Health

摘要

In response to epidemiological studies published over 20 years ago, at least three research communities have been intensively studying airborne particulate matter (PM). These efforts have been coordinated by approaching the source―atmospheric accumulation/receptor― exposure-dose―health effects paradigm (adopted from NRC, 2001) from different perspectives or along different parts of the paradigm. The atmospheric sciences communities consider the emissions of particles and precursors from sources, their transport and transformation in air to receptor locations, and finally removal from the atmosphere. The exposure communities' interest is to examine the pathways by which pollution or PM, in this case, approaches and enters the body, typically by trying to relate PM concentrations at a central location(s) to exposure and perhaps dose. Both the atmospheric sciences and exposure communities approach the paradigm from left to right. In contrast, the health effects communities have studied health outcomes, including hospital admissions, school absences, disease rates and deaths in human populations, and potential mechanisms of biological actions in laboratory settings. In general, the health effects communities' approach the paradigm from right to left attempting to correlate an observed adverse health effect with dose or exposure measures. For the most part, research results are reported in scientific publications and conferences for each community respectively. Over the years, there has been little effort to integrate information from these diverse groups in a substantive way. While a major attempt took place in 1998 at the Chapel Hill workshop (Albritton and Greenbaum, 1998), little has occurred since.